DiNapoli chided for committee member’s seat on Acadia board

September 20, 2013 05:30PM

The controversy surrounding Downtown Brooklyn’s City Point development has ensnared another city official: State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

DiNapoli, who normally has a good rapport with labor groups, angered the local ironworkers union when he refused to expel Wendy Luscombe, who sits on the real estate advisory committee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the state employees’ pension fund, and also serves as a board member of the project’s developer, Acadia Realty Trust.

“Acadia’s irresponsible development practices and its growing conflict with labor and community groups related to the City Point project in Brooklyn raises serious concerns about Ms. Luscombe’s affiliation with this company,” Terrence Moore, business manager of Local 46, wrote in the letter to DiNapoli.

Though DiNapoli refused to comply with the groups’ wishes, they ultimately got their wish anyway: Luscombe already stepped down for unexplained reasons.

Even so, the unions remained upset with DiNapoli for not agreeing with their assessment of Luscombe.

Acadia has been a target of trade groups for months; they accuse the developer of shortchanging non-union workers after receiving a federal bailout of $20 million in 2009. Community and union groups have sued unsuccessfully to stop the project’s construction, but at this point City Point is nearly finished. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland